When I first came to Alaska in 1977 on vacation, a friend told me that I really needed to look up Doc South if I made it to Fairbanks. So I did, and the rest is history! We've been playing tunes and enjoying comraderie ever since. In the early 80's, Doc moved to Anchorage to be the head of API, the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. Most people didn't expect that such a folky looking gentleman could be in such a high-powered job.
Doc was the magic behind the Monday night dance and music sessions in Mountain View for years. Every Monday I'd head over to the Mt. View Community Center to play for dances, and hang out with friends. I was new to dance fiddling, and had a lot to learn. At the time I thought you had to play the same tune for ten minutes at a time, which could be kind of boring. But at the sessions I learned about stringing tunes together in a medley, so that both musicians and dancers would be happy.
Doc was always extremely patient with beginning musicians, and welcomed newbies into the group. Eventually I played some gigs with him calling. One of the most fun was down in Homer where the dancers extended the party til the wee hours. Doc never ran out of dance calls or energy!
For his 80th birthday, we gathered at the Train Depot in Palmer and ate, drank and were merry to a full house. His family was there in support; Louise, Kathleen and her son Tyler, and Dan who even played some tunes onstage.
Doc says that when people asked him what brought him to Alaska, he said "insanity". It took me awhile to realize that his job (working with people who needed psychiatric help) could be defined as that. Or... like the rest of us, some sort of insanity brought us here and kept us here. And we're sure glad that Doc has been such a rich part of our lives!
